Poles took to the streets in Warsaw a day after an international constitution watchdog said the government is endangering democracy, deepening the country’s worst political standoff with its Western partners since 1989.
Waving flags and chanting “constitution, constitution,” protesters gathered on Saturday in front of the Constitutional Tribunal, the country’s highest court, to oppose what they see as a dismantling of checks and balances in the European Union’s biggest eastern member. The row is part of the conflict over a power grab by the Law & Justice party since its victory in November’s general election. It’s already triggered Standard & Poor’s unprecedented credit downgrade two months ago and led to the EU’s first probe of a member state’s democracy.
